Surgeons in Australia perform heart transplant with 'dead heart'

October 24, 2014 5:24 PM

11
0

"Now I'm a different person altogether," Michelle Gribilas said. "I feel like I'm 40 years old -- I'm very lucky."

To perform the operation, doctors relied on a medical device called a "heart-in-a-box." The dead heart, once excised from the deceased, is placed in the box where it is warmed and revived with a sterile circuit replenished with fluids that mitigate damage to the muscle. Once brought back to life, th...